Serena drops 1st set, storms back to beat plucky Mattek-Sands in 3rd round

Bethanie Mattek-Sands expected her third-round tilt with the indomitable Serena Williams to be a battle. Few others shared that premonition.

But, true to her word, Mattek-Sands gave Williams a stiff test, winning the first set and playing the world No. 1 to a standstill in the second before Williams settled her jitters and came back to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.

While Serena was tight as a drum in the opening set, Mattek-Sands was loose as a goose. She came out swinging from the heels, approaching early and often, and finishing points with guts and finesse.

Despite Williams' impromptu practice session after her uneven second-round win Wednesday, she continued to struggle with her serve. She landed just 52 percent of her firsts, double-faulting three times, and getting broken twice. And she was overhitting, trying to squeeze winners into tight spaces, going for too much. She made 14 unforced errors in the first set. Mattek-Sands made one.

As dominant as she's been in the big picture this year, though, this was far from unfamiliar territory for the 21-time major champ. It was the 13th time she'd dropped a first set in 2015, and she'd come back to win all but one of those matches.

Ridding herself of distractions, she prepared to do it again.

Whatever doubts Williams may have harbored at that moment, she had a deep well of evidence to remind her that the match was still entirely hers to lose.

As expected, she cranked it up several levels in the second set. She nailed 71 percent of her first serves, and won all but two of those points. She cracked 26 winners. She started moving forward and wreaking havoc at the net.

And still, Mattek-Sands refused to go away. She conceded an early break, but fought off seven more break points to stem the tide, and with Williams serving for the set at 5-3, she managed to wrest it back. At 5-all, she was eight points from the biggest victory of her life.

She wouldn't win another game.

Williams reached back and found a whole new gear, holding at love and breaking to win the set. In the third, she flat-out zoned, hitting winners from every part of the court. Once she started doing stuff like this, you knew it was all over.

Mattek-Sands won nine points in the decider. She gave Williams the battle she promised, but it ended decisively.

And so, the calendar Slam bid is still alive. There are some concerning signs yet, and Williams' fourth-round opponent, the ball-bashing Madison Keys, will be far from a pushover. But eight sets are all that separate Serena from immortality.

"I only have one match, the only one I'm looking forward to is the next one," she said. "That's all I can do."